As future Queen Consort, Kate Middleton urged to take on additional royal duties starting 2020
The next year could see a “big change” happening in the royal family - a major power shift - and as a result, Queen Elizabeth wants her grandsons Princess William and Harry and their respective spouses, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, to step up their game and start taking on more responsibility.
This year saw the royals engulfed in a huge scandal regarding the Queen's own son, Prince Andrew's close affiliations with billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which saw him ousted from his princely duties as well as the lumpsum annual paycheck. So with him gone, the burden of carrying out his scheduled duties will fall upon the other members of the Royal family.
“2020 is going to get a lot busier for all of them with Prince Andrew out of the mix now," Royal expert Victoria Arbiter said in the Heirpod podcast, Daily Express reported. "We've just lost one member of the royal family technically and, already, the workload increases for everyone else.”
She added that the monarch's advancing years could be a reason as to why she is looking to the younger generations of royals to take on additional responsibilities. For example, Kate took over a new role a new last week - the royal patron of charity Family Action which was carried out by the Queen for the last 65 years.
This comes after the Duchess of Cambridge already took over the role of the patron of the Royal Photographic Society after the Queen had been doing it for 67 years.
Another royal expert Omid Scobie said that Kate will have to juggle motherhood and the added pressure of increased royal duties.
“It's great, she is a mother, she has three kids, she has a very busy plate as it is...but to see her taking on, even more, is needed," Scobie said. “As the Queen steps back, the younger royals are having to step forward and put in a lot more work.”
“Kate is quite fortunate she had their children when she did, because she's been able to be hands-on with them. But the schedule needs to start building now, as she offers her support to the Queen as well," Arbiter said.
But Kate is not the only under the scrutiny of the Crown and the British media to uphold the reputation of the Royal family. “2020 will be a big year of adjustment, change and adapting with the Queen getting older, so everyone needs to start raising the game a little bit," she said.
It comes as the Queen prepares Kate for her role as Britain’s Queen Consort in the future.